A patient monitor for use in a critical care unit typically includes inputs for various physiological (or vital sign) sensors, such as electrocardiograph (ECG) or other cardiac monitoring sensor(s), blood pressure sensor, peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2) sensor, a respiration sensor, and so forth, as well as a display device for displaying vital sign readings in real time and/or trend lines plotting recent readings versus time, and an audio system for outputting alarms as well as other audio information such as simulated button clicks when users press displayed soft buttons. The patient monitor may also monitor important variables of therapeutic systems such as fluid infusion, air flow during mechanical respiration, or so forth. Conventionally, the patient monitor is a self-contained unit located in the patient room with vital sign sensors in wired connection with the patient monitor, although wireless connectivity is being increasingly leveraged to reduce the quantity of wiring around the patient.
A difficulty with this arrangement is that audio alarms output by the patient monitor may disturb or alarm the patient. Various measures may be taken to reduce patient noise disturbance, such as allowing audio alarms to be set to a low volume. However, functionality of the patient monitor audio system is of high importance to patient well-being, with some alarms being as life-critical in nature, and as such audio alarms of the patient monitor should not be allowed to be turned off or disabled to the point of compromising patient safety. Additionally, the audio system of the patient monitor may include some self-monitoring capability, e.g. of the volume level, or a speaker electric current sensor or so forth, in order to detect any audio system failure—an audio failure may be indicated by a flashing warning displayed on the monitor, or in extreme cases by having the monitor go blank.
Another difficulty with placement of the patient monitor in the patient room is that it is not readily observed by medical personnel, except during intermittent visits to the patient. Thus, a doctor or a nurse may not be able to hear/see an alarm if they are in another room away from the patient room. One way this is addressed is by employing large patient room windows, so that medical personnel in the aisle can view the patient and patient monitor from the aisle. This is an imperfect solution, since the patient monitor may be relatively far away and may be angled away from the window, or reflections at the window may obscure view of the patient monitor display. Such windowing also does not address perceptibility of audio alarms.
Another partial solution is to provide one or more secondary monitors, for example a monitor located in the aisle, and/or mirroring the patient monitor at the nurses' station, and/or providing an application program (“app”) loaded onto a smartphone or other mobile device carried by the patient's nurse. Such secondary monitors are generally not required to meet the strict reliability requirements of a life-critical patient monitor. In such systems, medical personnel are sometimes able to turn off various alarms, or “mute” the device entirely (e.g. a cellphone set to “silent” mode), and wireless connectivity may be lost without notice.
Another difficulty is that there may be audio interference or overlap between the patient room monitor and the aisle monitor. This adds unnecessary noise and possible confusion to the critical care environment. An alternative is to not provide the aisle monitor with audio, but this reduces its effectiveness in alerting medical personnel.
The following provides new and improved methods and systems which overcome the above-referenced problems and others.